Travel that Teaches: the Small Fortress at Terezin, the Paradise Ghetto

Last week I published a blog about Terezin, and travel that teaches, but no blog on Terezin, or Theresienstadt, would be complete without talking about the Small Fortress, where horrors of unbelievable proportion were perpetrated. The fortress served as the Gestapo’s prison from 1940-45, and the vast majority of prisoners there were Czech Resistance or Czech Communists. 1500 Jews who were fighting with the resistance, or who broke rules at Terezin, were also imprisoned there. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

We must always remember that the Holocaust happened, and millions suffered. The truth is important.  

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.” – Elie Wiesel

“Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” — Anne Frank

“For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.” — Simon Wiesenthal, Death camp survivor and Nazi hunter

“Jews survived all the defeats, expulsions, persecutions and pogroms, the centuries in which they were regarded as a pariah people, even the Holocaust itself, because they never gave up the faith that one day they would be free to live as Jews without fear.” — Jonathan Sacks

“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but, above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.” – Yehuda Bauer

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” – Elie Wiesel